PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB, 435 



Mr. Fuller said the low bottom lands of the West were fertile 

 without any ammonia. 



Prof Mapes said that in Monmouth county where the land is 

 white sand, positively valueless, good crops are raised by the 

 simple application of potash. 



Mr. Carpenter called the attention of the club to some seedling 

 potatoes he had received from Mr. C. E. Goodrich, of Utica and 

 Mr. Buckley, of Massachusetts. He read a paper from Mr, Good- 

 rich describing the different kinds sent, and giving the test mode 

 of treatment of potatoes. 



PROF, mapes' third LECTURE ON MANURES. . 



Prof Mapes delivered his third lecture on manures, viz : Pro- 

 gressed fertilizers. It was received with applause, and Prof. 

 Mapes was invited, by vote, to continue his lectures, until the 

 subject was exhausted. 



Professor Mapes said that in his previous lectures he had 

 endeavored to establish a few facts in reference to the best, 

 system- of ma,nuring — a matter of the utmost importance to the 

 practical farmer. First, that every element is progressive, 

 through its assimilation in organic life, taking new functions in 

 each .advanced stage of its development, and thus fulfilling 

 more perfectly the design it is intended to accomplish. Take, 

 as an instance, the potash in the debris of feldspar rock. It 

 would be assimilated by the lichens and other low classed plants 

 which cling to the rock, and in process of time by their decay, 

 return the potash in a form Capable of being taken up and ap- 

 propriated by plants of a higher order. Thus it would be found 

 to possess functions for assimilation which it did not possess in 

 its primitive condition. The same was true of every primary 

 element of every organism thus far analyzed. And there were, 

 besides, innumerable instances, familiar to every farmer, which 

 he could bring up in turn, proving it to be true of every primary 

 that goes to form the composition of plants. 



2d. That the use of ammoniacal and other gases received from 

 the atmosphere, was mainly to give new properties to water, 

 making it a more general solvent of inorganic material. The 

 chemical changes produced under its more active influence, were 

 consequently more rapid and more beneficial to plants. Thus it 

 would be seen that there were two conditions of soil regulated 

 by these difierences of organic gases. In a deeply disintegrated 

 soil there would be conditions discovered very different from 



